KIRO NEWSRADIO: SEATTLE NEWS & ANALYSIS

It’s not too late to get a Super Bowl ticket, but it will cost you a lot

Jan 30, 2015, 6:42 AM | Updated: Oct 11, 2024, 10:18 am

“Last year’s Super Bowl average ticket price for around $2500. This year it’s goi...

"Last year's Super Bowl average ticket price for around $2500. This year it's going for around $3,200. That's due to lower inventory and higher demands," said Cameron Papp with StubHub. (AP photo)

(AP photo)

The average price of a ticket to the Super Bowl as of Thursday, according to StubHub, is $3,275. And it has only gone up since then.

For the same price, you can buy three roundtrip tickets from Seattle to Thailand on China Airlines. You can pay a month’s rent on a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house on the water in Kirkland. You can buy a used 2002 Dodge Caravan off Craigslist. (OK, maybe the Super Bowl is better than that.)

All I’m saying is that $3,275 is a lot to pay for a single ticket to a football game.

“Last year’s Super Bowl average ticket price for around $2,500. This year it’s going for around $3,200. That’s due to lower inventory and higher demands,” said Cameron Papp with StubHub.

But people are buying them. Mostly Seahawk fans.

“We’re seeing about 20 percent of sales on StubHub come from the state of Washington,” said Papp. “Compare that to New England area, it’s around 10 to 12 percent, seven percent from Massachusetts.”

According to StubHub,the Seahawks fans are going to have a slight advantage in the stadium.

There are about 68,000 seats in the Glendale Stadium and most of them have been bought up, “There’s a little over a thousand listings on our site right now,” said Papp. “Last week there was around 5,000 or 6,000 so that just shows you how much we’ve sold already. We sold a lot earlier this year. The Super Bowl last year, people didn’t buy until the last couple days.”

As of Friday morning, the cheapest ticket available is $7,480 and the priciest suite tickets are going for $172,506.

Hotel prices in the Phoenix area are just as inflated. The Arizona Lodging and Tourism Association told me there are about 60,000 hotel rooms and they expect to be at 90 percent occupancy.

“Motel 6 that normally charge $70 a night are (charging) close to $500,” said Phoenix TV personality Tara Hitchcock. “People are renting their homes for thousands of dollars. I have friends that are making 10,000 to 20,000 on their homes […] They’re not getting out of town, they’re going to bunk with their friends.”

Tiger Woods is in town for the Waste Management open, too, and this golf event is bringing in even more people than the Super Bowl, so the demand for rooms is extra high.

But if you can splurge for a room, but not for a ticket, take Tara’s advice, “I’d rather spend less money, fly home the morning of the game and watch it on my couch, which I’ve done for years. And I have a blast in the hotel and in the host city up until hat point, still get to see the game.”

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It’s not too late to get a Super Bowl ticket, but it will cost you a lot